The eighteenth century was an exciting period of history where power shifted from the government to the people. Democracy was born and would begin to take hold in societies across the world. Monarchies were violently overthrown as people began to demand freedom and representation. We should forever cherish the eighteenth century as the events that occurred during it grant us many of the freedoms that we enjoy today.

Scholars and historians around the world have been researching public records in Pennsylvania to try and get a better understanding of eighteenth century history, culture, science and arts. A visit to Independence Hall in Philadelphia can provide an amazing glimpse into this truly influential time period.

Below you will find quotes from famous people that lived during the eighteenth century. You will find that they reveal an incredible amount of the thinking of the time and that many are still very meaningful today.

“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

– John Adams

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

– George Washington

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

– Benjamin Franklin

“The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“Give me liberty or give me death.”

– Patrick Henry

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

– Voltaire

“To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.”

– Charles de Montesquieu

“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.”

– George Washington

“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

– Denis Diderot

“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

– James Madison

“God made me and broke the mold.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

– Benjamin Franklin

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.”

– Charles de Montesquieu

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”